Today Health Minister Jim Wells announced his resignation following remarks last week that children who are raised by same-sex parents are “more likely” to be abused.

While the DUP is certainly out of step with the public, and their remarks are often taken as ridiculous and even comical, the consequences on the ground can be very real for LGBT people in Northern Ireland.

The gay couple who suffered 12 separate attacks

Over the course of one year Vincent Creelan and his partner experienced 12 separate attacks on their home: windows were broken, eggs were thrown at the property and their car was vandalised.

But when they reported it to the police, nothing happened.

It took many years and a series of complaints for eight police officers at a station in Co Down to be disciplined for their inadequate response to these homophobic crimes.

The gay rights campaigner who overdosed

Last year the PSNI faced an inquest after its officers took three hours to enter the apartment of gay rights campaigner Terence McCartney after he overdosed.

Just hours before his death he was assaulted in a suspected homophobic attack.

A gay widow suffered 21 attacks in 18 months

Paul Finlay-Dickson - who lost his husband to cancer at the beginning of the year - reported 21 homophobic hate incidents in the last 18 months.

A gang of young people has been targeting their home, sending death threats and pushed excrement through their letterbox.

He's now having to move from the home he shared with his husband.

Homophobic hate crime is on the rise

Homophobic hate crime has been on the rise in Northern Ireland for the last eight years - the PSNI now records an average of nine incidents or crimes every week.

And victims don't always want to report it to the police

While it's good that more people feel comfortable recording anti-gay crime, according to the Equality Commission 80% of people who experienced homophobic attacks in the country do not report it.

The Rainbow Project have told us that occasionally they serve as a conduit between the community and the police

They are sometimes tasked with bringing complaints to the police, "particularly if the victim does not want to make the complaint directly to the police themselves. We can report it to their police on their behalf, if they wish".

Gavin Boyd of the Rainbow Project told us this happens for a variety of reasons. Victims of hate crime "may not be out and may fear that reporting an offence would ‘out’ them to others in their community" or "they may have had an unsatisfactory response from police officers in the past and do not expect to get a good service this time".

Others may feel "that what they have experienced is not serious enough to report to the police".

Between April and September last year, 14 complaints were made to the police through The Rainbow Project.

Because when they do report it the results can be disappointing

The sanction detection rate for crimes with a homophobic motivation tends to be much lower than those for all crimes recorded by the police, regardless of crime type.

And out of 179 homophobic hate crimes who were reported in the last year, only 25 have resulted in a charge, reports our sister site ampp3d.